Selwyn Mayor Lydia Gliddon says her district will push for a standalone unitary authority, setting Selwyn against Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, who wants the city to merge the district’s biggest towns.

Selwyn councillors voted last Thursday to pursue a standalone unitary authority under the Government’s Head Start pathway, after a community survey in which 58 percent of more than 4000 respondents backed the district governing itself.

Gliddon said the decision was driven by residents. “This is the biggest thing to happen to local government since 1989,” she said. “It’s been very clear that this needs to be shaped by people and by our communities, and that is exactly the mandate that we’ve followed.”

Mauger has now declared his hand for the first time. At a meeting on Tuesday, Christchurch City Council unanimously agreed to take part in the Head Start process without settling on a model, with that decision due on Wednesday.

Mauger signalled his support for the option that would absorb the urban centres of Selwyn and Waimakariri, taking in Rolleston, Lincoln, Prebbleton, Kaiapoi and Rangiora.

For Selwyn, his preferred option would strip out its fastest growing towns and leave the rural remainder behind. Gliddon has consistently argued the district must be treated as a whole rather than split into parts.

Selwyn’s proposal would keep the existing council intact while absorbing the regional council functions left over from Resource Management Act reform. Gliddon said not everything should be pulled down to district level.

“Some of those are best delivered locally, so within the Selwyn District area, and some of those are actually still better delivered at a regional level, where we need to work with our neighbours,” she said. “Rivers and catchment management is one of those. You can’t shrink those down into subregional unitary authorities.”

To submit a compliant proposal, Selwyn needs the backing of at least one other Canterbury council. Gliddon wrote to every Canterbury mayor last week asking them to support Selwyn’s bid, offering to support theirs in return so long as the proposals did not contradict each other.

Whether that support materialises remains unclear. Most neighbouring councils are making their own decisions this week, with a Canterbury Mayoral Forum meeting scheduled online on Saturday morning to work through where everyone has landed.

“Some of it is last minute,” Gliddon said. “It’s up to them, and there’s no hard feelings. If they don’t want to do that, then that’s totally fine for them as well.”

Proposals must reach Wellington by Sunday, August 9. Gliddon said the timeframe had been the hardest part of the process and acknowledged it had cut across the way the council normally operates.

“To make a decision as big as this, you need to bring people on a journey,” she said. “A lot of this has gone against the principles that we have as a council, and I recognise that.”

The council surveyed residents for 10 days. Its annual plan consultation runs for six weeks.

Gliddon said the process was only the beginning, with two years of detailed design to follow if Selwyn’s proposal is accepted.

“We are going to be touching base with our community the whole way through, because we recognise this needs to be led by people.”

She thanked residents for taking part, singling out the written comments submitted through the survey.

“At our meeting last week we all sort of chose a couple that meant a lot to us. I’m really proud of this community for coming out and telling us their views.”

Cabinet will decide in September which proposals move forward. The new councils are expected to be operating in time for the 2028 local election.